Question: Was advancing to the New England Golden Gloves Tournament in Lowell your goal?

Answer: "Yeah." Big smile.

There is, however, nothing shy about Verdejo in the ring. Fighting out of the Heart Gym in New Bedford, he won the Novice 132-pound division in the Southern New England Golden Gloves Tournament at the PAL Hall in Fall River Friday night by taking the fight to the taller Mike O'Han of Big East Boxing in Stoughton.

It was one of the best fights of the night as the two young gladiators went toe-to-toe on several occasions, drawing a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd at the final bell.

But it was Verdejo who got the best of those exchanges with sharp, crisp left hooks and straight right hand counters.

"We had to go inside," said Heart Gym trainer Nestor Gonzalez. "We worked on that. We had him sparring with a tall kid in the gym and that helped him a lot."

The victory also demonstrated Verdejo's versatility as he had stayed mostly outside behind a good jab in his semifinal win over Luis Smith of On Point last week. Verdejo only started boxing two years ago and is now 3-3 after a 1-3 start.

"He progresses every week," said Gonzalez. "What more can I say? He's a good kid, trains hard, and he trains to win."

And yes, I did get a complete sentence out of the Verdejo with a little prodding.

"I knew when (O'Han) was going to throw his right," he confided.

Yeah, and then...?

"I beat him to the punch," he replied with a grin.

The other three New Bedford fighters in Friday night's finals were not as fortunate as Verdejo was the only one to advance to the New England Golden Gloves Tournament in Lowell Feb. 12 and 15 (for the Novice Class; the Open Class will be held Feb. 19 and 20).

Efren Nunez of On Point lost to defending Novice 141-pound champion Roberto Colon of the Fall River PAL, while John Giacobbi of the Heart Gym was bested by another Fall River PAL fighter, Oscar Atanacio in the 114-pound Open Class final.

This will be Colon's second shot in Lowell as he lost in the New England tournament 141-pound finals last year.

Atanacio went to the National Golden Gloves tournament in Las Vegas last year after receiving a bye through the Southern New England and New England tournaments in the 108-pound division. He lost to the No. 1 seed in his opening fight at Las Vegas.

But the bitterest defeat Friday night had to be that suffered by Scott Sullivan of On Point, who had lost in the finals last year to UMass Dartmouth student Jim Perella of Mansfield. Perella had to withdraw from this year's tournament because of a back injury.

"I wanted so bad to go to Lowell," said an inconsolable Sullivan after his loss to Travis Demco of Big East Boxing. "I thought I was going to make it last year. That's all I thought about for the last year. I thought I would make it this year."

His was an ugly defeat in that he arguably possesses more skills than Demco, but the latter was stronger and used a billy goat style to smother Sullivan's punches and push Sullivan into the ropes.

It was style over substance, but Sullivan had another name for it.

"He was a dirty fighter," said Sullivan. "He was head-butting me. I complained to the ref, but he didn't do anything about it. He also hit me on the break and was using his elbows.

"I'm not a sore loser, but I really thought I won this fight. I landed the cleaner punches. I was hitting him with jab, snapping his head back, pop, pop, pop. Then he'd throw a jab, miss, and then grab me and push me into the ropes."

Unfortunately, that was not the way the judges saw it in a unanimous decision for Demco.

In maybe the best of several good fights on the card, two-time defending champion Gerald Schifone of Big East Boxing rallied in the last two rounds after a slow start to beat the tough Adam Paolino of Sampalis Boxing in West Warwick in the 165-pound Open final.

In the super heavyweight (201-plus) Open final, Cassius Chaney of Manfredo's Gym in Narragansett was awarded a questionable decision over Don Smith of Big Six Boxing in Providence.

Smith won the Novice super heavyweight title last week with a decision over Jeff St. Pierre of Wisher's Gym in Dartmouth.

Bob Hanna covers boxing for The Standard-Times. Contact him at sports@s-t.com